Woman guilty of murdering husband in 2011 shooting

April 3, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Annamaria Magno Gana, 41, of Tustin Ranch sits in a Santa Ana courtroom during opening statements March 11, 2013. Gana is facing a murder and attempted murder charge in connection with the Mother's Day 2011 fatal shooting of her husband, Antonio Gana, and non-fatal shooting of her then-16-year-old son. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Annamaria Magno Gana, 41, of Tustin Ranch, arrives in a Santa Ana courtroom for opening statements March 11, 2013. Gana is facing a murder and attempted murder charge in connection with the Mother's Day 2011 fatal shooting of her husband and non-fatal shooting of her then-16-year-old son. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Annamaria Magno Gana, 41, of Tustin Ranch sits in a Santa Ana courtroom during opening statements March 11, 2013. Gana is facing a murder and attempted murder charge in connection with the Mother's Day 2011 fatal shooting of her husband, Antonio Gana, and non-fatal shooting of her then-16-year-old son. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – A Tustin woman sat motionless with her hands folded on her lap when an Orange County jury convicted her Wednesday of murdering her husband and attempting to kill her two sons in the family's home on Mother's Day 2011.

The eight-man, four-woman jury also found that Annamaria Magno Gana, 43, committed the special circumstance of murder by lying in wait, a penalty enhancement that calls for a life term in prison without the possibility of parole.

She also was convicted of two counts of attempted murder involving her sons, plus sentencing enhancements for using a gun to commit the crimes. Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseño scheduled sentencing for June 3.

Gana turned in her chair after the verdicts and smiled weakly to several members of her family, who were gathered on one side of the 11th-floor courtroom. Her stepdaughters – the adult children of murder victim Antonio Potenciano Gana, 72 – sat holding hands with tears in their eyes on the other side.

Jurors were led to a waiting elevator by sheriff's deputies and did not talk with reporters.

They deliberated for about two days and rejected defense contentions that Annamaria Gana was suffering from delirium, severe depression and psychosis brought on by several medications – including those for breast-cancer treatment – when she killed her husband, whom she met in the Philippines.

"Your heart can break for people suffering from depression," Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh said later, "but society cannot morally or legally accept murder-suicide as a solution."

Baytieh argued during the three-week trial that Annamaria Gana knew what she was doing when she pulled the trigger and that she made a "self-centered decision" to kill three family members and herself.

"Was she distraught? Was she depressed? Absolutely," Baytieh said as he described her holding her dying husband in her arms. "But that's no defense for murder."

Annamaria Gana told investigators in an interview the day after the incident, "I wanted to kill everyone," according to an audiotape played during the trial.

When Sheriff's Investigator Ken Hoffman asked her what that would accomplish, she said she wanted her entire family to die with her so no one would suffer from her death, according to the tape.

Witnesses testified that she fired the first into the ceiling of her bedroom, shot her husband in the chest when he ran into the room to see what happened, and then shot her oldest son, Tony Gana, then 16, in the arm. The son survived.

The son testified and watched his mother's trial from the center gallery of the courtroom, sitting in between his father's relatives and his mother's family and friends.

The Mother's Day incident came to an end, Baytieh said, when Gana's 9-year-old son managed to wrestle the gun out of her hands.

Gana's four defense attorneys did not dispute the shootings, but they claimed she did not have the mental state to commit premeditated murder and planned only to kill herself.

"If you can't find the state, you cannot find my client guilty of the crime," argued Edward Shkolnikov. "She didn't know what she was doing."

Gana testified that she did not remember shooting and killing her husband, or shooting and seriously wounding her son.

"I felt like I was dying. I felt like there was no hope," she testified. "I felt like everything was just overwhelming. I felt like every single problem was a big one ... I'm thinking I need to sleep. I need to sleep."

Her first memory after the shooting, she said, was sitting beside her husband hugging him.

“We are disappointed to learn of the jury's verdict today,” said Michael K. Cernyar, lead counsel for Gana. “Although we respect the jury's decision, we don't agree with it and we look forward to the appellate process.”

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